1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printing apparatuses, printing methods, and media storing printing programs that print form data merged with print data.
2. Description of the Related Art
With printing apparatuses, conventionally fees are charged regardless of whether or not there is print data on the pages to be printed. That is, a fee is charged even for blank pages, and therefore there is a demand for fees to be charged flexibly in response to the objects to be printed, with various techniques being developed.
For example, in the case where in a printing apparatus there are pages to be printed that are blank, it is common to not charge a fee for the cost of toner or the like by inserting a “blank page no fee” command into the data of those pages. Furthermore, in order to prevent the “blank page no fee” command being inserted intentionally into non-blank pages to avoid fees, immediately prior to print processing after a rendering process, print data may be cleared for pages in which a “blank page no fee” command has been inserted such that a blank page is discharged (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-139465).
In generally performed printing techniques there is form merging printing in which print data for merging and form data are merged. Form merging printing such as this is a technique in which data that has been captured by a scanner or stored as PDL data in advance is superimposed and printed as form data with print data. The aforementioned “blank page no fee” commands are held even in the case where printing is to be performed after data being stored once by a document storage function (also referred to as BOX function) of the printing apparatus, for example. Accordingly, multi-page data stored by the document storage function or the like is used as form data to carry out form merging printing. When a “blank page no fee” command is held in either the form data or the print data at this time, the command becomes valid and a blank page is outputted undesirably.
In recent years there has been increasing demand for printing apparatuses capable of supporting multi-page form data. In the case where the form data is multi-page, it is common that rather than generating all the form data, a user will generate form data by reusing and processing existing data for example. Here, it is conceivable that the aforementioned “blank page no fee” command is already inserted in any of the pages of the form data. If a “blank page no fee” command is inserted in a page that is of no concern to the user, a blank page will be undesirably output according to the original function of the “blank page no fee” command.
Generally, for a user to investigate whether or not a “blank page no fee” command has been inserted in data, it is necessary for that user to be familiar with PDL language for example. Consequently, it may be difficult for a user to delete “blank page no fee” commands when necessary.
Furthermore, there have been various methods in form merging printing in recent years, and representative examples of such methods that can be put forth include a method in which form data is printed on preprinted sheets that have been printed on in advance, and a method in which toner for print data and toner for form data are printed in a one-time operation. Also, in recent years, printing apparatuses have become common that combine these methods. Further still, form merging printing can also be used in, for example, a case where form data to be used indiscriminately for all pages such as a watermark is merged with print data for printing.
Accordingly, it is desirable that the application of blank page commands is flexible as desired by the user in form merging printing in which various functions are combined.